The decision took place “due to the set of technical inconsistencies”.| Photo: Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil

The president of Ibama, Rodrigo Agostinho, accompanied the technical opinion and this Wednesday (17) denied the license requested by Petrobras to explore for oil in the FZA-M-59 block, in the Foz do Amazonas basin. The decision, which occurs “due to the set of technical inconsistencies”, follows the recommendation of analysts from Ibama’s Environmental Licensing Board.

“There is no doubt that Petrobras was offered every opportunity to remedy critical points of its project, but that this project still presents worrying inconsistencies for the safe operation in a new exploratory frontier of high socio-environmental vulnerability”, said Agostinho when denying the environmental license.

The president of Ibama accompanied the understanding of the technical team on the “need to resume actions that are incumbent on the environmental area to ensure the Environmental Assessment of the Sedimentary Area (AAAS) for the sedimentary basins that still do not have such studies and that still do not have oil exploration, in the shortest possible time”, said the agency, in a note.

Ibama stated that despite being regulated since 2012, the AAAS has never been held in the region of the equatorial margin, where the block is located at the mouth of the Amazon. In addition, the region is considered a region of extreme socio-environmental sensitivity.

“The environmental licensing process for block FZA-M-59 began on April 4, 2014, at the request of BP Energy do Brasil, the company originally responsible for the project. In December 2020, the oil exploration rights in the block were transferred to Petrobras, which had the license request definitively denied this Wednesday. It is the second refusal for drilling activities in the region – in 2018, Ibama denied the issuance of licenses for five blocks under the control of the company Total,” said Ibama.